I know some of you have been waiting for this. You've been waiting for far too long. I've been so focused on other projects, and putting the finishing touches on this was an incredibly low priority for me. But I figured I might as well get it out there, for those of you who want it.

I'm probably not representing this update too well; the truth is, v9 is a huge change. All the levels have undergone massive renovation, plus there's custom music now, courtesy of Charybdizs.

Remember, there is a separate file for music. It's too big to upload here, so I'm providing mirrors.

I'd like to thank everyone who both loved and hated this mod...this community has really helped me on my quest to become a professional game designer. I hope you enjoy it.

Spoiler: changelog

Beta 1: The first demo of this mod. Just included Sunshine Atoll Zone and all the boss battles.

Beta 2: Eruption Conduit Zone and Drowned Downtown Zone have been added, plus a lot of renovations to most of the levels already in the pack!

Beta 3: Snowcap Nimbus Zone and Gritty Columns Zone have been added, plus some more renovations to existing levels. Notably, a new path has been created in SAZ1!

Final Demo: Fume Shaft Zone and Liftoff Gantry Zone have been added. Several of the boss battles have been improved, some drastically overhauled. And a few levels have been tweaked a bit.

Version 1.0: Now we're getting somewhere! Here's a list of the most significant new features:

-Complete Single Player Campaign. The levels are still in a pretty crude shape right now, and they will be improved later, but they're all there!

-Full Coop Support, and Coop-friendly alternate routes in some levels.

-Gamedata and saving capabilities.

-Emblem Hunt! There are 54 emblems in Tortured Planet right now (the Statistics page in the game says 56, but it's counting the secret emblems, which I have not added). One for each player in each of the first two acts of every zone, just like in the official level set. Be aware that the emblem locations are not necessarily permanent--some of the emblems have a somewhat crude placement, especially the ones for Knuckles. Later versions might have emblems which are hidden more creatively.

-A special intro cutscene, replacing the official intro, which explains the back story of Tortured Planet (I already explain it in this topic, but it's nice to have a reference in the mod itself).

-SIGNIFICANT changes to Sunshine Atoll Zone Acts 1 and 2. I'm not telling you what they are; you have to play to find out. However, you'll see many of them from the moment you load up the level.

-General bugfixing throughout the game.

Version 1.1: A hasty bugfix for v1.0.

Version 1.2: A hasty bugfix for v1.1.

Version 2.0: The Match levels have been made, and a few more minor graphical and gameplay bugs have been fixed.

Version 3.0: With the exception of Star Showdown Zone, literally every single map in the entire game has been overhauled at least somewhat (it's not apparent in some of the boss battles, but yes, I did make at least some really minor changes to all of them, too!) The Match levels, though still hardly top-notch material, have had many of their most glaring flaws corrected. And as for the Single Player levels, many of them have been totally transformed. You'll see more texture variation, more path splits, more new gimmicks, new areas, more secrets, and a general reduction in bugs. In addition, I followed a lot of the advice that has been given to me on improving the levels, so you'll see some of your wishes come true!

There is going to be a v4.0, but this should certainly tide you over until then.

Version 3.1: WHOOPS! V3.0 had a couple of problematic bugs...they've been fixed now.

Version 4.0: This update is pretty much as big as 3.0 was. Practically every level has been updated in some way, and many of them have significant new areas, gimmicks, and glitch removal. Also, new cutscenes have been added for the beginning of each zone!

Version 4.1: Bugfix.

Version 5.0: The most massive update yet. Most levels have been improved, some enormously expanded. ECZ1 was scrapped and remade entirely. Sunshine Atoll, Fume Shaft, Liftoff Gantry, and Spacewalk all have lots of new custom textures, and Gritty Columns now takes full advantage of the DSZ set. The boss battles have been revamped, the biggest changes occurring in Fume Shaft 3 and Star Showdown. There are loads more changes that you should also be on the lookout for!

Version 5.1: Critical bugfix (a pattern emerges).

Version 5.2: Son of critical bugfix.

Version 5.3: Good grief, another bugfix!

Version 6.0: This update puts 5.0 to shame. It features level improvements just as expansive, plus new secrets and unlockables. There is now a purpose to collecting the emblems and the Chaos Emeralds. Music has been changed in places, too. The levels themselves feature mostly visual improvements, but there are also some new or modified gimmicks and challenges to watch out for, as well as one or two new path splits.

Version 6.1: The mandatory hasty bugfix. This contains a lot of little fixes, instead of just the usual one or two.

Version 6.2: Actually, this one's got a little more than just bugfixes. It also features some minor graphical improvements to GCZ, and Weightless Whaling Zone has been optimized somewhat.

Version 6.3: All previous updates have either been large-scale transformations or tiny bugfixes. This is the first one to be somewhere in between. Version 6.3 features a whole slew of bugfixes, plus substantial changes to the first three zones!

Version 6.4: A couple of bugfixes, improvements to SAZ1 and ECZ, and optimization.

Version 6.4.1: Infinitesimal tweaking of SAZ.

Version 7.0: Sorry, but here's where the trend stops. v7.0 is nowhere near as expansive an improvement as v6.0. But there's still a fair amount of new stuff. The biggest change is the addition of the Tortured Archives, an unlockable blast-from-the-past that will allow you to play Tortured Planet as it was in Version 1.2, pretty much the first stable and complete version of the pack. Of course, v7.0 levels beat the hell out of v1.2 levels, but perhaps a playthrough of the pack at its worst will help you appreciate how far Tortured Planet has come. Besides Tortured Archives, you'll also find an even better Sunshine Atoll Zone, plus scattered bugfixes.

Version 7.0.1: Correction to the MAINCFG lump.

Version 7.1: Minor bugfixes, improvements, and optimization of ECZ2, SNZ1, and GCZ1.

Version 8.0: Significant improvement of ECZ, DDZ, and SNZ, moderate improvement of GCZ and LGZ, and small adjustments to SAZ, FSZ, and SWZ.

Version 8.1: FSZ2 was previously riddled with bugs. Well, not anymore!

Version 8.1.1: Hasty tweak of DDZ2.

Version 8.2: A bunch of bugfixes and optimization.

Version 8.3: Improvement to FSZ2, slight changes to ECZ1, and some assorted bugfixes.

Version 8.4: More bugfixes for FSZ2.

Version 9.0: The mother of all improvements, and probably the last one I'll do, unless I decide to create a 2.1-compatible version when the time comes. Every level has undergone tremendous changes, including scenery updates, gimmick updates, and hundreds upon hundreds of glitches fixed.

Also, Spacewalk Zone is now 100% optional. Those few players who still want to brave this monument to wasted effort can still do so, and the remaining 99.9% can simply jump on the SKIP pad at the very start of the level to take them straight to AAZ.

Finally, of course, there's Charybdizs's music. You'll have to download a separate file, but it's definitely worth it...particularly since the levels are silent without it!

The Story:

After Sonic and company beat Dr. Eggman in Final Fight Zone, the evil scientist fled to another planet, taking the few functional robots he had left with him. Sonic and his friends felt they needed a good, long vacation, and went to Sunshine Atoll Zone for a few months of sun and surf.

But a few weeks into their vacation, EGGMAN ATTACKED AGAIN!

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles managed to escape to the other side of the island unharmed, but they were seriously confused. How had Eggman managed to return so quickly?

After spying on some robots, Sonic discovered the answer: the planet Eggman had fled to was rich in natural resources--and was home to a peaceable but strong alien race which Eggman had enslaved to reconstruct his evil schemes.

Well, the three of them had to do something. This alien planet desperately needed their help--and what was more, now that Dr. Eggman was powerful again, he was also taking over Mobius! Will Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles EVER get to finish their vacation?

I agree with you that many parts are repetitive. Much of what is in these levels is just "placeholder" stuff, which will be taken out when I can think of better gimmicks to add in their place.

Honestly, I think the pack would be improved greatly if you simply removed this area. There is quite a lot of it in several stages, the ice stage especially comes to mind, and it just gets old after a while. Simply having smaller areas isn't a bad thing if all of those areas are interesting.

In general, I still like what I see here, but there is one thing that you absolutely need to remove: Falling rocks.

I dislike that gimmick in SRB2 proper, but in this pack it is rage-inducing to the extreme. They're basically random and you have them over bottomless pits and other areas that turn into pure RNG bull shit the instant the rocks are involved. I'd go so far as to say that the pack would be dramatically improved if you deleted every single rock spawner in the pack entirely and changed nothing else. They're that annoying.

Also, where in hell are the shields? I never had one outside of the first stage, pretty much, and they add a lot to SRB2's gameplay. Part of this was me being more busy trying to not die, but the levels really should provide some shields ON the path in most stages, even if it's just Whirlwind or Elemental.

SWZ2 was pretty infuriating as well, especially the bit where you have to balance between two pits. This would be a lot more reasonable if you allowed the player to touch the ceiling. It just doesn't feel right that going too high can kill me when gravity is going downward. The gimmick with the blue pain floor was just annoying, too.

In the positive end, I liked AAZ2, especially the 2D bit, and tons of the hazards were quite amusing. The 2D sections still feel really cheap, but that's more 2D mode sucking than anything else. The usage of the swings in 2D mode was epic and makes me want to do that in SRB2 proper. I absolutely LOVED the room with the flickering lights. Best implementation I've seen of that in SRB2 so far. It wasn't hard, and it dragged on a bit too long, but it was awesome regardless.

Overall, good work, it just needs a ton of refinement to be excellent. Also, upload it as an attachment. The filesize limit was increased and I hate free hosts.

I actually got the inspiration for the flickering lights from Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time--the dark mazes with the shine blocks.

Also, I will be releasing v1.2 later this evening to correct those level start point mistakes once and for all. They sprung up when I was setting up the emblems, and I sometimes forgot to put the start points back. I will upload that version as an attachment.

__________________
Just another indie game developer...check out my website, Chapman Games!

So the copy-paste spamming is only temporary? Great, I just re-found my hope for this. Before I make my usual ultra-long review (which will take some days due to me being away), I'm gonna say that Spacewalk is pretty horrible, and I think it should be scrapped, with the good parts moving to Liftoff Gantry. Also, Alien Armageddon had some very good ideas, but it dragged on for too long with not enough content (copy-pasting etc.), and the visuals were extremely inconsistent, switching from cave to lava to castle to factory and whatever. Also, most of your levels have really bad visuals, probably because your themes try to do more than they can.

I am afraid to say, however, that even though I'm planning to reduce copy-paste spamming in my levels, it will probably take a very long time to do so. You won't be seeing much improvement in the Single Player Levels in V2.0...the upcoming version is mostly about the creation of the Match and Tag Campaign. I am planning to do a fair amount of overhauling in V3.0, but don't expect all of your problems to be fixed with its release...I do hope to get as much of these issues fixed as I can eventually, though.

Also, it's kind of funny that my levels ended up with really bad visuals; most of my previous WADs had the exact opposite problem--excellent visuals but horrible gameplay. I suppose I've overcompensated a bit, and ended up with levels that have passable gameplay but bad visuals.

__________________
Just another indie game developer...check out my website, Chapman Games!

Effort =/= Quality
Also, you first said it was a great mod, and now you're saying it's horrible? :/

And like D00D, I'll give a review later. However, I will list my general opinions on the zones:
I like Gritty Columns and Liftoff Gantry: they're both good zones, with some lesser parts.
I think Snowcap Nimbus and Fume Shaft are decent: FSZ just has lots of laggy areas.
Eruption Conduit and Sunshine Atoll are too boring, and they both lack direction: they're easy to get lost in the first time.
Drowned Downtown and Alien Armageddon are quite bad: they're both ugly, the former is too slow with it's puzzles, and the latter drags on for too long and can't decide what it wants to be.
And Spacewalk is a horrible piece of crap which sucks and should be removed from the face of this planet entirely, because it looks hideously ugly, it plays increndibly bad, and it's just all over the place. Not to mention this is the only zone I ragequitted on.
Lastly, Star Showdown: lol copypasta with slight edit

Spacewalk Zone is very incomplete, and I plan to overhaul everything. The only real reason I published the levels as is is because I wanted to have a bunch of placeholders in position.

In particular, I plan to eliminate most of the repeated spammed-space-junk sections of Spacewalk Zone once I can come up with some additional gimmicks for the level. And, yes, Mystic, there will be far fewer rock spawners eventually.

I realize that this method of designing a level--putting out really bad versions of the levels in an attempt to tide people over while I slowly develop better versions--is not the way most level designers would do things. But I'm not most level designers.

__________________
Just another indie game developer...check out my website, Chapman Games!

In general you want to place enough that anyone casually looking around will find some weak stuff, and people who take some time to scour the stage will find some powerful items. This is actually a problem in the pack as a whole, but it's especially obvious in that stage. If I just look around a bit I should find a couple Super Ring boxes in pretty much any stage.

I'm afraid that's utterly impossible. I couldn't do that without eliminating gamedata, saving capabilities, time attack, and emblem hunt. That no-map-change restriction is hard-coded to be in any standalone mod.

However, if you beat the game, you unlock Level Select.

__________________
Just another indie game developer...check out my website, Chapman Games!

Added spoiler tags just in case people start going tl;dr.
Also, no boss reviews, only when they're original.
And these ratings are different from my old scores.

Spoiler: Review of Tortured Planet

Sunshine Atoll Act 1 -2/10
I like the sky you chose, although it doesn't blend in very well with the LWATER1 flat.
This level suffers from lots of bland gameplay and generic to ugly graphics. For starters, there's a lot of flat ground, and there aren't many jumps needed. Second, it's easy to get lost in this stage. The only things that guided me in any way were the Crawlas. Seriously, make it less easy to go in circles and remove the springs that are used for backtracking. Third, there are too many 'secrets' hidden behind bustable walls. This would not have been a problem, wasn't it for the fact that there are 3 shields at the start, and 1 shield in the rest of the stage, and the 1-up at the first inside area is too easy to find. Basically, use more original ways of hiding secrets.
The graphics, like I said before, aren't very good. First, GFZROCK is overused. Badly. CLIFF textures and related look very good if used properly: use them instead. Also, WEEDWALL doesn't with with JNGGRS04. Just use the small jungle grass edges, and lower them by 32-40 pixels with texture aligning. The underwater areas also lack visually and they mostly don't have anything.

Sunshine Atoll Act 2 -1/10
This mainly suffers from the problems of the first act, it's just too similar. However, some parts have even worse flaws. For example, the beginning is bland as hell. The tree hopping is bland, and the path below is entirely passable by running and jumping twice if you land on the grass. It also looks ugly, but I liked the rustling sound.
There are also too many caves in this level, and they don't look good or play well. Finally, the coastal path at the end is extremely flat and bland, in both ways (visually and gameplay-wise).

Eruption Conduit Act 1 -2/10
Another ugly stage, this time with a combination of lava which lacks consistency and a deranged THZ-like factory. Why did I call the themes that way? Because the lava is inconsistent. Sometimes it's liquid, Sometimes it's solid, and near the '1-up cave' it's a death pit for no reason. And regarding that '1-up cave': it's exploitable. You can just get infinite lives there, in the vein of the Disco Room of ERZ2, and even quicker than that. The factory looks boring and is even more boring to play.
The gameplay this time is not only bland (but more vertical, and that's a plus), but it's also cramped at points! And like SAZ, the layout may cause you to go in circles, but it's a bit better than in SAZ. The factory (entrance) looks dull, and the fences in there beg to be solid, because it's easy to run into the slimelava there. And the pipeline shortcut hurts my ears, my eyes, and my brain. It's too loud, too bright, and too horrible for me to know why you put it in. There also is a HOM in the scenery right next to the exit hallway.
It's a short stage, but I dunno if that's positive or negative.

Eruption Conduit Act 2 -3/10
Well, this looks a bit better visually, but I still don't like the lava being liquid. This is quite an average stage, brought down by some flaws. Firstly, it's way too short. I completed it on my first playthrough in 1:16 seconds. The polyobject at the start is pointless and feels misplaced, and the 'alarm room' is annoying. It hurts my eyes, and the path is less clear if the screen's flickering black and red rapidly. I liked the huge rooms though.

_________ALL LEVELS AFTER THIS SUFFER FROM A LACK OF MULTIPLE PATHS_________

Drowned Downtown Act 1 - 2/10This stage is very dark. As in, 'I had to turn up the gamma level to see anything' dark. It also consists of mazes, slooooooooow underwater parts, ugly textures, and a 'way too easy watersliding' section. Nothing more to say, other than that I dislike this stage.

Drowned Downtown Act 2 - 1/10
Wow, this is even worse than act 1. It suffers from the first level's flaws (sans watersliding), but it also adds a whole heap of them.
For example, this level features even more slooooooooooooooooowness than the first act, due to puzzles. This wouldn't have been a problem if it was used as much as in DSZ, but it happens a lot more. Two rising water level rooms, and a very long and boring gargoyle section which is on the only path in this level. The water wave room is also annoying, and the subway section (on the other hand) is too easy and too slow.
Lastly, the lift at the end has improper side textures.

Snowcap Nimbus Act 1 - 3/10
Wow, this is surprisingly generic for a 4th zone. It's just platform hopping and some rope pulleys (which are pointless at some parts). However, I liked the music and the sky, and the mirror effect was quite nice too. I didn't like the sudden overuse of deathpits though, and the oil clashes, visually. The texturing is also quite bad, and I don't like the THZ version of the XMAS texture being used on the largest outside walls. The cloud hopping is overused, and looks ugly.

Snowcap Nimbus Act 2 - 4/10
Look, now we're getting somewhere. The polyobjects at the start are kinda pointless, and the visual complaints from act 1 still apply, but the level is a bit more varied and looks a bit nicer. The rope pulleys now have more use, and the cloud hopping is less overused now. However, I don't like the amount of narrow hallways in this stage.

Gritty Columns Act 1 - 5/10
Finally, a stage that's average. The visuals are decent, sans for the cacti grouped up in clumps (they should be more spread), and the gameplay is more varied and quite enjoyable. However, I don't like a few rooms, such as the rising quicksand room. It looks very bland, and you can just spam jump in the quicksand and still survive. The cavern part is too maze like and too bland. You can tell it's bad if I accidentaly stumble on a 1-up and a Force Shield. The end is also a bit lacking in visuals. But overall, an average stage.

Gritty Columns Act 2 - 5/10Blandvisuals are the prime problem in this stage, along with some crushers that are too easily passable. I mean, there are only 4(?) different wall textures in this stage, and the architecture suffers from pillars near the end. The gargoyle 'puzzle' and the button 'puzzle' break the flow, and the torches look too bright. Finally, there's a severe overuse of hallways.
I did like the polyobjects though, and the gameplay was actually good.

Fume Shaft Act 1 - 4/10
...and the visuals got bad again. A random mishmash of rock textures, combined with goop and slime, which looks very ugly to be quite honest.
And the difficulty curve took a sharp turn upwards in this stage, with a lot of platforming above bottomless pits/goop, slightly annoying gimmicks, and lots of rock spawners. However, the gameplay was good at points, and below-average at worst. However, this level suffers the worst of lag issues. My computer doesn't even lag in any official SRB2 level or Oceanic Cove, so that proves it's really bad. The fans are also quite pointless at points.

Fume Shaft Act 2 - 3/10
Argh, this is even harder than the first act! But wait, there is some fake difficulty thrown in there, in the form of lame deaths. The gimmicks in this level are way more prone to that, especially the rising goop room. It lags badly, one tiny misstep results in death, so that leaded to many lost lives for me. The music choice is also bad, but that's mainly because of my bias against the guitar overuse in tsome SRB2 music tracks. Lastly, there is an overusage of rock spawners. It's really bad, and it's very annoying.

Liftoff Gantry Act 1 - 7/10
I'm speechless. You managed to actually create a good level, after all the previous ones! First things first, this is the only zone which looks good, due to nice texturing, a nice theme, and good lighting usage at points. I don't like the dark hallways though, it's way too easy to get hurt in those, especially with the laser beams, which aren't even visible until you're already hurt by them. The sky's a bit too colorful, and the beginning is a bit dark and cramped.
I also don't like the copypasta, it's just not good to rip off other people's maps.
The overall stage has decent gameplay and nice gimmicks though, and this map is the absolute standout of this pack. Good job.

Liftoff Gantry Act 2 - 6/10
This is a bit worse than act 1: the visuals look a little less good, the gameplay is a little less good...
However, it's still above average, but again, stop the copypasta.
This stage has two large 2d parts, with the first one being fun, and the second one being less fun, due to lame deaths. For the rest, it's more of the same, just a bit worse.

Spacewalk Act 1 - 0/10...and then we went from the best zone in this mod to the worst one. This level is a clusterfuck of FOFs, astronomically ugly visuals, ridiculously bad gameplay, unfitting music, and gravity changes for the heck of it. There is nothing good about this zone, except for the machine that gives you invincibilty. However, that just wastes time, so it's not a real plus. Finally, I eventually ragequitted due to the huge amount of lame deaths in this stage. Also, why is there water in here?

Spacewalk Act 2 - 0/10
This is just as bad as act 1. It looks a bit better, but it overuses rock spawners and there are even more lame deaths. The red/blue floor gimmick for example, and the gravity at the start helps this too. The other gimmicks are a little better, but it's still an astronomically horrible stage. I also ragequitted on this stage.

Alien Armageddon Act 1 - 2/10This stage is the best possible example of the word 'mess'. You seemingly couldn't think of anything original on an alien planet, so you just combined a castle, ugly caves, black outside areas, and more weird stuff to come up with the horrible visuals of this stage. The gameplay is also ridiculously bad.
However, the worst problem in this stage is the overuse of everything. I couldn't name a single enemy that was not used, and I couldn't find a single hazard that you didn't use. I mean, there is a huge overuse of maces, rock spawners, flamethrowers, and lethal liquids. The stage also drags on for too long, and it's just a huge mess.

Alien Armageddon Act 2 - 2/10
Same problems as the first act, except for the fact that it all takes place in a castle now. I also like the 2d areas (sans for the visuals), but again, it's a mess. Again all enemies have been used, and all hazards from the first act return, but now they're even lamer! There are even more lame deaths in this stage, which resulted me ragequitting after getting 8:30 minutes on the timer. In other words, this stage is way too long.

Final rating of whole pack:3/10I'm sorry, but this level pack is still a chore to play through. It has potential though: you just have to improve the bad stages by a lot. I do admire the amount of effort put into this (except for the copypasting), so that earns you bonus points.

No, this review is totally not long, and it surely wasn't time-consuming :P